Strategic Investment in U.S. Biofuels Company

24 November 2011

Waste Management (WM) has closed an equity investment in California based renewable fuels specialist, Fulcrum BioEnergy.

WM has agreed to a secured loan facility, which upon the satisfaction of certain conditions, provides for it to fund up to $70 million for Fulcrum's Sierra BioFuels plant.

Both companies have also entered into a master project development agreement to collaborate on the joint development of Fulcrum projects throughout the U.S., using Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) supplied by subsidiaries of WM under long term feedstock agreements.

Fulcrum recently began construction of its Sierra BioFuels plant, located in Storey County, Nevada.

The plant is expected to begin commercial operations in the second half of 2013 and is designed to process 147,000 tons (133,000 tonnes) of waste per year and produce approximately 10 million gallons (38 million litres) of ethanol annually.

The company said that it is deploying a proprietary alcohol synthesis process to convert post recycled MSW into advanced biofuels using thermochemical gasification.

According to Fulcrum this agreement enhances its financial position with a back-up source of debt capital in the event that it is not able to finalise a federal loan guarantee, and has also helped secure crucial feedstock supplies.

"This allows us to expand our national development program that includes projects with the total capacity to produce more than one billion gallons (3.8 billion litres) of fuel annually," explained E. James Macias, president and CEO of Fulcrum BioEnergy.


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